A/N: I don't own any recognizable material. Any such material belongs to Erin Hunter.
Ivyclaw's Lament
Ivyclaw glanced at the she-cat who was his apprentice. She was sharp-tongued and an attitude to back up what she said. Ivyclaw was never wanted to have kits or a mate. He just wasn't a cat that wanted to have another. His focus was to the clan and that was all. He didn't want the kind of pressure. He knew his father wasn't a good one, what hope did he have of being a father.
However he had come to think of this kit, no this cat as his own kin. She may have been intolerable to begin with, but now that he knew more about her, he was amazed by her. She was harsh to the point many hated her, but she cared for the elders even without having to be told. She accepted that the others did not like her, but hunted and waited for them to be fed. The queens felt like she was a bad influence on their kits, but she only ever reprimanded them when they were rough or course.
With her, actions meant much more than words. She may say many things, but the things she did proved she had the clan's best interests at heart. This was what Ivyclaw regretted most after what he had done to her and it burned him inside. She was laid up in the medicine den, having had claws rip up her face earlier at a gathering. The respect he had for her grow at that gathering when she didn't strike back the offending cat, he knew she was well within her rights to do so. He watched her with the other apprentice, Beechfur's apprentice and when Willowshine pronounced her fit to leave, just to be careful in training and to come back at high sun to get the webs changed.
"Shadowpaw, a word?" He asked her. She looked at me before nodding. He padded over to the apprentice den. "Are you sleeping in the den tonight?"
She looked at the tom with an intense look. "I might." She said honest, yet aloof as if it really didn't matter.
The ivy-eyed tom nodded, knowing it was the best he was going to get. "I feel I owe you an apology." He looked anywhere but at the young cat that sat quietly beside him. She looked up startled by his statement, then looked suspicious no one apologized to her. It just wasn't what they did. Yet here her mentor was apologizing to her.
"I don't understand why you are apologizing to me." She told him.
"You've seen the apprentice ceremony." He stated glancing at her. "I know that you know how it's done." He was tensing not wanting to do it, but he was proud enough to admit when he was wrong. "You know that a mentor and apprentice touch noses as a sign of respect. I apologize I didn't do that for you. I blatantly disrespected you, not that you knew it at the time. I did it all in an attempt to make known that I thought a kittypet wouldn't last in our world. I was wrong." He said. "I can admit at least that. For this I am sorry."
Shadowpaw looked at her mentor before she got up and padded lightly away. "Ridiculous Ivyclaw just ridiculous." His heart sort of broke a little because clearly her forgiveness was not something he would get. "You really should have known, I forgave you when you acknowledged me as one of the best." She turned her head with a cocky smile. "I'll see you for dusk patrol right." She said as she continued into the nearly empty apprentice den.
The cropped eared tom smirked. She was too good to be his apprentice of that he had no doubt, but he's glad she was. She was the closest thing he had to a daughter and he was proud of her. He was proud of how she had grown from cocky kittypet to the sharp-tongued yet kind apprentice. Ivyclaw was almost sure she was ready to become a warrior.